Modern electronic systems rely on rapid development of the latest features. The integrated circuit development process has made great strides to simulate the intended circuits in order to shorten the development time. Unfortunately the manufacturing processes are subject to difficulties, such as contamination, parasitic devices, varying concentrations of grown layers, and the like. The identification of these failure modes can consume extended periods of time and carry a very large price tag. The true cost of identifying a failure mechanism is not measured by the initial delay, but rather the loss of volume shipments at the end of life of the integrated circuit.
In order to alleviate the potential for delay, testing and analysis is performed at every opportunity. Some internal circuits, that are not testable at the edge of an integrated circuit can be wired to an input/output driver in order to add visibility to the internal circuitry. Unfortunately that technique can add delay to the internal circuit and the frequency of transitions of the circuit can be limited by the bandwidth of the output driver that was only added to show the internal circuit operation.
Some approaches can monitor internal circuitry only in static states and do not provide a full picture of the circuit operation. All of these difficulties are dealt with on a daily basis as our society utilizes more and more integrated circuit devices in our daily lives. The convenience of our smart-phones, personal music players, video players, hand-held games and the like are prevalent throughout the world. Each of these developments can contain millions of transistors that must be verified during the development and manufacturing processes.
Thus, a need still remains for electronic system with diagnostic interface mechanism to improve development cycles and manufacturing reliability. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.